Chaplaincy, Hauntings, and Racialized Healing: Navigating Spiritual Care Experiences Among Migrant Communities in American Hospitals

The proposed study investigates how ethnicity, belief systems, and diverse understandings of healing and the body influence the delivery and outcomes of spiritual care in American hospitals. The primary focus is on Asian communities, whose spiritual narratives are often shaped by memories of migration, family history, and the ongoing process of reconnecting with their homelands and ancestors in a new cultural context. These communities frequently draw from multiple religious and cultural traditions, which, in turn, shape their expectations, experiences, and responses to spiritual care. In addition to examining the experiences of Asian communities, this study will also explore interracial encounters in biomedical settings, focusing on how different racial and ethnic groups navigate shared spaces of healing, suffering, and end-of-life care. By investigating the ways in which spiritual and supernatural experiences—such as ghost narratives and hauntings—are expressed across racial lines, I seek to uncover how histories of migration, colonial violence, and medical marginalization manifest in diverse patient populations. The core object of inquiry in this study is a set of relationships that emerge within clinical settings but extend beyond the temporality and physical space of hospitals. This research aims to examine three interrelated dimensions of these relationships across time and space. 

First, it will explore the interactions between Asian and Asian American patients and interfaith chaplains, focusing on how the nuances of spirituality are expressed, negotiated, and understood within a framework of spiritual care that is deeply rooted in Christian traditions. By looking at the case of Asian and Asian Americans, this study guides us to detail how the concept of ‘religion’ or ‘spirituality’ has racialized differences, thus instructing the advancement of care. Connecting this with the framework of structural competency defined as “the trained ability to discern how a host of issues defined clinically as symptoms, attitudes, or diseases (e.g., depression, hypertension, obesity, smoking, medication “non-compliance,” trauma, psychosis) also represent the downstream implications of a number of upstream decisions about such matters as health care and food delivery systems, zoning laws, urban and rural infrastructures, medicalization, or even about the very definitions of illness and health” (Metzl and Hansen 2014, p. 128). Bridging cultural sensitivity with an awareness of systemic influences, the study advocates for a model of care that not only addresses individual symptoms but also reflects upon what harm and experiences of stigma could mean in the modernized clinical setting- an arena of power. Second, this proposed study will investigate how spiritual experiences are intertwined with the “pathoplastic” hauntings where ghosts are perpetually hungry, resentful, and performative in the wake of displacement and trauma. Incorporating the framework “pathoplasticity” allows us to dig into the personal trajectory that “are shaped by expectation and meaning from the experiencer’s context and personal history” (Ng 2023). This approach helps further unpack why the fear or depression for certain populations is hard to tame by modern psychological therapies and treatments and explain the hidden causes of disease in the lived social, cultural and historical experiences of patients. Finally, building on the second point of my investigation, I seek to uncover relationships that extend beyond a single ethnic group—Asian/Asian Americans. Instead, I will explore the nexus of interracial narratives of hauntings, focusing on the commonalities in ghost stories and the embodiment of hauntings that stem from a colonial past across different ethnic groups. The richness of hauntings is not confined to any single racial or ethnic group but rather emerges through shared histories of oppression, migration, and marginalization. 

This study will be conducted at Boston Medical Center, where I currently serve as an interfaith chaplain intern. As the largest safety-net hospital in New England, Boston Medical Center primarily serves people of color who face significant health disparities, mental health challenges, and the burdens of the racial wealth divide. The hospital’s diverse patient population, many of whom live on the margins and experience displacement, reflects the layered complexities of life. Life is being marked by constant flux, suffering, and the violence imposed by present societal structures, as well as the unresolved wounds of the past. Grounded in anthropological inquiry, this study employs qualitative research methods to examine the ways in which patients and chaplains navigate spiritual care within a highly structured, Western biomedical institution. By centering lived experiences, this research highlights how spiritual encounters, both personal and supernatural, unfold within the hospital as a contested site of power, specters of the past and healing. During my long-term immersion in the field site from October 2024 till present, I will employ a combination of qualitative research methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews with medical care teams, and reflective journaling based on my chaplaincy visits. 

This research is significant as it illuminates how spirituality, race, and migration intersect in clinical settings, shaping patient experiences and healthcare outcomes. By examining the spiritual care of Asian and Asian American patients within a predominantly Christian-rooted chaplaincy framework, it challenges existing models and advocates for more inclusive approaches. The study also contributes to structural competency by revealing how colonial histories, displacement, and medical marginalization influence both spiritual distress and healing. Moreover, its exploration of interracial narratives of hauntings uncovers shared histories of suffering that transcend ethnic boundaries, offering a deeper understanding of how past traumas linger in contemporary healthcare encounters. Through long-term ethnographic engagement at Boston Medical Center, this work advances culturally responsive care while situating hospitals as complex arenas of power, memory, and spiritual negotiation.

This leads to the potential research questions as follows:

How do interfaith chaplains navigate spiritual care for patients under the example of Asian and Asian American who blend religious, spiritual, and secular frameworks, including traditional healing practices (like acupuncture, herbal medicine, and meditation) and alternative medicine?

 How do interracial narratives of hauntings in biomedical settings reveal shared experiences of colonial violence, medical exploitation, and systemic marginalization, and what implications do these narratives have for rethinking spiritual care and healing within and across different ethnic communities?

Keywords: Chaplaincy; Hauntings; Historical Trauma; Migration; Racialized Spirituality